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I suppose £250 would have been OK for first-quality AS items not on clearance, but I would normally expect a good mid-range suite (i.e. inc bath) for that money! Still, it was good that you were able to salvage the WC cistern. 13 years ago, during a bathroom refit at home, I chanced upon a complete spa-bath suite (i.e. bath with fitted jets, pump, blower, basin/pedestal, cc WC, taps, traps) being sold ex-display at B&Q for £250. It was slightly marked (customer abuse) and a couple of the spa bath control knobs were found missing after I bought it. The spa bath manufacturer was very helpful with some technical info and supplied the missing bits at nominal cost - which B&Q refunded cheerfully. The price new would have been nearly £1,000 and the whole set-up worked well, so I was pleased (as was the wife). The marks (mainly odd scratches in the bath) were of little consequence as they would have appeared anyway after a period of use, but I diminished them with some Perspex polish and elbow grease. Let me know how you get on with the mains issue - 'no pressure'!

1. Are you saying that AS thought you had been over-charged, even though it was allegedly a discount bargain? AS products are not normally cheap, but quality is usually reliable. I do agree with the principle of buy cheap and make it work; in my experience (in most fields), you do not get what you pay for, except perhaps at the very extremes of the price range. (Funnily enough, the nice new inset basin I put in at my flat is an AS - £2.00 at a boot-sale! It lacked the fixing clamps but they were easily made. And the shower bath is also AS, bought as 'unwanted' through the local paper.) 2. Obstructing the flow (locally) should limit splashing from too great a volume under high pressure. Yes, a PRV might well do the job more succinctly but it may not be really necessary. But then I haven't seen the system, and if pressure is very high, a PRV might be the only effective solution. You might want to speak to your water supplier; it is possible the main is at the wrong pressure.

The suite was from B+Q advertised as an 'end-of-range' discount bargain from Armitage Shanks. We got the money back for the toilet+cistern because it wasn't possible to use the cistern innards. The through-hole for the inlet was both under-size and tilted. It took 15 minutes and a cheap Chinese sourced diamond coated (core) drill to put that right. (After I got a refund. Nothing lost if I screwed it up.) When I spoke to the manufacturers, they expressed some surprise at how much I had paid for the suite ... Lesson learned? Buy the cheapest, and spend the difference making it work, rather than spending good money on a poor product and then spend even more money making it work. Reducing the flowrate won't affect the pressure. I am VERY appreciative of the mains pressure, and was another reason I was happy to get a 30kw boiler since poor pressure/flow-rate would have made the bigger boiler pointless otherwise. I've not seen the likes of it anywhere else. We must live 100 yards from a pump. Comes out of the taps like its attached to a fire hydrant. Turning the stop-cock to reduce the flow rate makes it very noisy too. while I agree the £20 for a PRV might be an avoidable expense, most of my 'experience' with plumbing has come with some cost attached. I'm almost certainly going to 'give it a go' to see what difference it makes.

That over-priced and poorly designed suite sounds as though it came from Bathstore, Freddy. I fitted one once for a friend and had various problems, especially with poorly-formed fixing holes through porcelain, at risk of causing a crack. And it is very common for basins not to sit nicely on pedestals, or for the bowl not to be level (front-back) if the back is sitting nicely flush with a truly vertical wall. I usually employ a good squirt of white silicone twixt basin and pedestal (a) to give a cushion and take up some irregularity; (b) to prevent movement. In a really bad case, a little packing can be buried in the silcone too - offcuts of vinyl sheet are very useful for this (and under pedestals and in 1001 other DIY applications where a smallish gap needs to be filled). I don't think you need to worry about max mains water pressure in any properly-made plastic plumbing; they are designed for such and, in fact, the increasing pressure tends to make the grab-rings 'bite' even more. Rather than messy about with a PRV (£15 - 20 wasted), why not just partially close the isolating valve to the cold tap? (Or if the problem is a general one, partially close the main stopcock, cock.) Be grateful that you have enough pressure for all normal purposes! A simple flow-checker will indicate the mains pressure, but its 'bar value' is not really of interest (except when installing a boiler or other sensitive kit) - if it runs right at the tap (no drenching), it is right.

I would usually be about 20 pounds lighter than I am right now. A couple of injuries and a lot if travel has kept me off the bike far too much this year. I really need to do something about it before this gets too settled!

Today I finally fitted the sink from a cloakroom suite I bought 5 years ago. It wasn't a hard job. The plumbing had been completed a week or two ago. The mounting studs, maybe 2 years ago. The bug-bear was a canted pedestal (resolves by forming a fibreglass wedge on the base) and some poorly designed taps, with an even less well designed waste. I trial fitted the whole thing before 'fixing'. The fixing included some silicon blobs on the back of the basin to stop subsequent movement, especially if someone leant on it. The sink and pedestal were not made to live together, if their actual fit is anything to go by. The set (loo, sink and fittings) were not cheap, though were certainly overpriced .... I am a little older, and considerably wiser, I hope. So it all fitted. Tap flexi tails reached. The waste pipework reached. The pedestal was located in the right place (if such a place exists). Blobs of silicon on, the sink was offered up to the studs, and sat on the pedestal. Once levelled and the nuts done up on the studs, the sink was off the pedestal! Not that there was ever much contact, but now there was none. Not wanting to pull the studs out of the wall, or bend them, I've added some fibreglass pads between the sink and the pedestal for support. I'll add some hardening adhesive later, but I needed to support the sink somehow immediately. With everything in place and connected, I gave the taps and waste a run-through. The tap is pointed correctly and water bounces off the waste pop-up. Sadly, the cold water (mains) pressure is so high, I sprayed the WHOLE bathroom when I opened up the cold tap. Worried this pressure might force the press-fit connector off, I checked the flexi. Held secure, but seemed a little short? I hadn't left much excess on the supply pipe, but I was sure I'd left enough so I could 'wiggle' the flexi a little. Rather disappointed, I realised I'd made a mistake and would have to add some length to the pipe. As I drained down the cold supply, I concluded my planned trip to London was going to be postponed AGAIN. With the trip now off, I ordered up a mug of the house coffee, and took a break. Draining down the cold pipework didn't take long. Once I had drained it, I again had a little wiggle on the flexi, and it moved? It wasn't flapping around, but adding length to the copper supply pipe seemed almost pointless. I reconnected the open pipework, and re-pressurised the cold feed again. The flexi went rock hard, due to the water pressure. I probably need to make sure that Hep20 doesn't have a low pressure threshold for letting go, and I also need to check the pressure of our water supply? (Which might cost a little bit of money for equipment I don't currently own.) I've spent a small part of this evening, pricing up a "pressure reducing valve"... A side benefit of the pressure reduction would be to remove the opportunity for guests to cover themselves and the bathroom, with a lot of water. As I did twice. (I'd left the cold tap on when I drained it down. Got wet a second time.) As I say, if it was easy, someone else would be doing it.